Summer Guest Post

I have always loved summer. When I think about my summers as
a child, I remember them being very hot with a lot of time spent outdoors. I
ran around freely with my friends in the neighborhood, roller- skating, riding
my bike, running under the fireplug to cool off, chasing the ice cream man
after dinner, and catching fireflies. I remember going out early in the morning
and only coming back to have lunch and dinner (Remember these were the days
when your mom threatened you to “not come home before dinner”).

 As a mom,
summer was a time to get off of the “schedule” and do more things as a family.
All winter we followed the “schedule” rigidly. We had school, ballet classes,
car pools, and sports schedules to keep. I had a “day timer”, this is what we
called the book that had everyone’s daily activities written in. (I was a mom
before electronic devices so I actually wrote down everyone’s schedule). I
religiously wrote down all of my children’s activities. This kept me sane!
However, each summer I loved going off of the schedule.  I wanted to create traditions that were
specific to summer as well as create a more relaxed environment around our
home.  After all it was a break,
right? For the most part I think I came close but we were often sidetracked by
camp schedules, swim team obligations and of course, summer reading assignments
for school (don’t get me started on that, isn’t summer reading suppose to
encourage children to read? Not in our house, by the third week of August I was
punishing them if they didn’t finish their summer reading, Ughh).    My children are now 21, 25
and 27. So I thought it would be interesting to find out how they felt about
their summers. I asked each one independently, “When you think of your summers
as a child what were your favorite memories?”  Some of their answers were what I expected, the traditional
summer activities such as swimming, hanging with their friends, going on
vacation to the beach, and camp.
But surprisingly they also included spending more time with the family
outdoors having barbeques, preparing and eating crabs at our annual “crab
fest”, watching movies on a rainy day, playing baseball together, going to the
library for story hour then walking to get ice cream (Really? Because I am
pretty sure not one of them has stepped into a library
since).

Well, I guess even through some of the summer obligations,
my children were able to appreciate the more relaxed atmosphere that summer
brings. Here is a fun summer bucket list. Hurry before the summer ends! Is
there anything you can add?

– Joanne